The full story...

Prisoner X story continues to unfold

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The case of Israel's Prisoner X, and the revelation that he was Melbourne man and likely Mossad agent Ben Zygier, has caused shockwaves around the world.

The story was the product of months of hard slog by the reporter Trevor Bormann and his team at ABC TV'S Foreign Correspondent.

I thought you might be interested to hear the story behind the sensational story of Ben Zygier, so I invited Trevor in for chat.

Trevor Bormann, congratulations to you and your team at Foreign Correspondent for producing such a fine piece of journalism. Just how long was this story in production?

TREVOR BORMANN: Well, about 10 months, really.

I was in Israel in April of last year and it was quite by chance that I caught up with a contact, and in a 15 minute meeting he gave me this story.

It seemed quite an extraordinary story, almost too good to be true.

But it really didn't offer much detail.

I had a name, and I was made aware of this mysterious Prisoner X, this man under great secrecy and security in Ayalon Prison in Tel Aviv and the contact said, you know, 'this is the guy, and guess what - he's an Australian Jewish man.'

And that was about all.

So on my first trip, I dug around a little bit, but no-one seemed to know anything about this, which was heartening in a way because it made me realise that this might be my story. But it also made me realise just how much work would be required to validate the information and actually make something of it.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Because the suggestions that the story made were momentous, and obviously demanded great veracity and rigour on your part to check it all out.

But how did you manage to apply all of that when you were dealing with such a hotchpotch sort of smattering of information?

TREVOR BORMANN: well we had the story of Prisoner X, and the challenge for us was to match him with this many Ben Zygier in Melbourne, and we knew they kind of died around the same dates.

My information was that he was Prisoner X, he died in that prison and that he had been working for Mossad. But a lot of it was circumstantial so we had to set about forensically trying to get information to match this Prisoner X with the real man that we knew.

That was an investigation we did in Israel over two trips, and then there was some work to be done in Melbourne.

Vivian Altman, a producer at Foreign Correspondent, who herself is Jewish and was actually living in the Melbourne community a few years ago, she spent some time there and immediately the penny dropped.

There was this rumour in Melbourne that, yes, there was this guy who had worked for Mossad and what do you know, his funeral was seven days after his death in Israel which we matched to Prisoner X.

But we kind of ran against some big road blocks there.

No-one in the community would speak to us. In fact, there was hostility among the acquaintances, the family and friends that we approached.

It was rumoured that this man had worked for Mossad. It was rumoured also, and quite well-known, that he suicided, but no-one in Melbourne seemed to have made that connection with this Prisoner X, but we had.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So what sort of response, then, did you get from Ben Zygier's family when you approached them?

TREVOR BORMANN: We approached his parents - his mother and father - they declined to be a part of the story, they didn't want anything to do with us.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Were they curious about the information that you might have had?

TREVOR BORMANN: They were in a very difficult situation and still are - more so, I'd suggest.

They were dreadfully bereaved and traumatised still at the death of their son. But I guess it's reasonable to say that they tried to throw us off the scent.

We put to them that we had information to suggest that Ben had died in this prison in Israel in 2010 and they got back to us and said, 'no, look, we've heard all the rumours too. This is not a matter of public interest. It was a very tragic situation and a very private one.'

And they said, 'we saw our son slowly slip away and then he left us.'

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So they were convinced that he killed himself?

TREVOR BORMANN: Yes. Yes, they were convinced that he killed himself.

We now believe that they were also aware that he was incarcerated earlier in 2010 and were kind of embraced into a process where Ben was going to be tried in secret in Israel for his transgressions, whatever they were.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Did that puzzle you that his family would respond in that way?

TREVOR BORMANN: It did. I thought about it day and night. None of us could work out exactly why they would feel that way, but I guess it's difficult to second guess them, and in the end, it's difficult to rationalise how they might be thinking in their great distress.

But look, I guess as we now believe and know, this man worked for the Mossad.

That would have been weighing on them as well, so they found themselves in a very difficult situation.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Did you attempt to contact Ben Zygier's wife in Israel?

TREVOR BORMANN: We did towards the end. I had a couple of telephone numbers I called. There was no response.

But his wife was kind of involved in this matrix of information that we were trying to get together and it all fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle.

There wasn't much of it, but it all seemed to fit.

And after months of inquiry, it got to the stage where Steve Taylor, our executive producer, and Bruce Belsham, the head of the department, we sat down and there was this rigorous forensic interrogation of me about the claims and my beliefs in the story.

Everything that we asserted was dissected and checked, and you know, it was a process that we had to have.

In something like this, where you realise that it will have profound consequences, there's always a few milligrams of doubt in your mind. And it made me feel better, actually, because minds with fresh approaches in the case of Bruce were very reassuring. And in the end, we were fairly sure that the story was right and we know today that fundamentally, it was.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So, was there a eureka moment for you when you became convinced that Prisoner X was in fact Melbourne man Ben Zygier?

TREVOR BORMANN: The name I had was Ben Alon - that's what my contact in Israel gave me.

Of course, we know this man to be Ben Zygier, a Melbourne man.

So it wasn't a good start, given that we seemed to have the wrong name.

I guess one eureka moment was when we accessed information from the death certificate in Melbourne, and the name on that death certificate from Israel was Ben Alon, and we knew this to be Ben Zygier, the man that was buried in Melbourne on December 15, 2010.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So was that when you became convinced that you had the story right?

TREVOR BORMANN: I think I was convinced long before then, but there was much work to be done, and the trouble was no-one was talking in Israel.

This was an extremely sensitive matter.

There was a gag order there that stopped any local inquiry by Israeli media. And Israeli journalists are very tenacious, they're very active, but they couldn't inquire into this, so even if they had a whiff of this story, they couldn't take it any further.

The gag order was so extreme that mere mention that there was a gag order was prohibited, so human rights activists wouldn't speak to me.

I remember doing a story for Foreign Correspondent on the assassination of a Palestinian arms dealer in Dubai - Mossad were accused of that - and I remember being in Israel and these very vigorous human rights activists were yelling from the rooftop that, you know, 'this is murder, Israel should not be involved in this.'

When it came to this case, they wouldn't even get back to me. I went to Israel - they wouldn't even see me in an off-the-record meeting. So I realised I was dealing with very sensitive matters here.

But a truly extraordinary thing happened on the day that the Foreign Correspondent story went to air.

The promo had been whizzing around social media - everyone in Israel knew that this story was coming up.

We went to air 8 O'Clock on Tuesday night - 11 O'Clock Israel time - and just a few minutes before our program went to air, the Haaretz newspaper ran the promo that had been bouncing around the world for several days before, and the response to that was quite extraordinary.

Alarm bells rang; the prime minster's office summoned the media owners, and the newspaper and media editors in Israel. And at that meeting was the head of Mossad and the chief censor, and the newspaper people were told, 'you can't tell this story. You cannot report on this Foreign Correspondent story in Australia. It's the subject of a gag order, there are issues of national security for Israel that will be compromised if you report on this story.'

And my understanding is that the editors turned on the head of Mossad. They said, 'look this is just ridiculous. You're taking Israelis as fools. This is 2010, this is the digital age. Anyone in Israel will hit the ABC website and see this story. And they will.'

'So how can you expect to throw a blanket of censorship over Israel and expect for Israel to be quarantined form this story that will be reported throughout the world?'

So the gag order, the next day, was modified, and the Israeli media could at least report on our story and attribute the story to the Foreign Correspondent program. But they were still restricted in investigations of their own, to follow-up stories of their own.

But really, it did mark a change in a way that I'm told will make a real difference in Israel, in terms of how sensitive information is managed in future.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: I mean the implications are quite far-reaching as you say, for the journalists in Israel, but also presumably for Mossad.

This is one of their spies who's been outed very publicly.

TREVOR BORMANN: That's right, and the ramifications of that are yet to be seen.

It was interesting that the prime minister reacted to this and said, 'look, be easy on the security services, they have a job to do - Israel is a nation that faces many external threats, and internal threats.'

'So, don't worry, trust us, back your security agencies, your intelligence agencies. You've got to maintain the trust in those agencies and respect the fact that we can't be telling state secrets.'

Now of course, that's very true. Intelligence agencies can't divulge to the public at large state secrets that if exposed, would be a danger.

But of course, this is the case of a man who was incarcerated under great secrecy, and no-one knows, no-one has any idea, of the nature of his transgressions.

There are so many questions here that have to be answered and there's a great deal of soul-searching and inquiry in Israel now to prompt authorities to at least allude to the nature of this case.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Were you worried about your own safety, Trevor, throughout this process?

TREVOR BORMANN: It occurred to me that surely I would be scrutinised in terms of my movements in Israel over two trips, my telephone calls, my emails.

If this was the explosive story that I suspected it would be, I might have anticipated a bit of scrutiny of me.

Now I had my contact in Israel say, 'look, if I were you I'd leave the country now. You have the story, what are you hanging around for? Go out and tell the story.'

But I still had a few things I had to chase up.

Now of course I left the country - it's fine, I hope to go back there.

I wasn't really worried about me. To be honest, I was more worried about how to make 30 minutes of television out of this story, because in television, you need pictures, and at that stage I didn't have very many at all.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Did you receive any threats?

TREVOR BORMANN: No I didn't - nothing that I'd take too seriously.

It's kind of encouraging for me that there's a great deal of public and private discussion about this. And it's kind of gratifying as a journalist to know that at least you have started something and raised issues of great public debate in two countries.

So that's gratifying in itself. And sure there's always flak, but I'm prepared to take that.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Knowing as much as you do about this case, do you think Ben Zygier killed himself?

TREVOR BORMANN: Ah, in the far reaches of my mind, I find it difficult to grasp that a man in prison under such security - and we do know that there were CCTV cameras there - a man being monitored so closely could die.

Now there are all kinds of stories about what was in the cell, if he had furniture, whether he had no furniture - it's in the realms of conjecture I guess.

I think possibly, and most probably, it was suicide, but I think the question remains: if they had such tight control over such a person, how could this happen?

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Do you think he was treated this way for going to ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) with information, or does that really not add up to you?

TREVOR BORMANN: The Israelis treated him the way they did for reasons that only they know, and are not prepared to share.

I believe that he had contact with ASIO. And I believe that ASIO were obviously aware that he and two other Australians had a situation where they would change their names, take out new Australian passports, then travel the world with their Australian accents and Australian passports working for the Mossad. And I'm aware that the three Australian dual citizens had an operation in Italy where they sold electronic parts to Arab countries.

I believe that to be the case.

In terms of his direct relationship with ASIO, I just don't know. I believe that ASIO knew him, and I also believe that they had contact with him. And I believe as well that he would have given ASIO information about his career with the Mossad.

That is my belief.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: But do you think that's why he was treated the way he was, or does that suggest something more serious?

TREVOR BORMANN: Well, the prime minister of Israel has suggested that there is no ASIO link, and he's suggested that Ben's transgression was something far more serious.

That would seem to fit with the kind of treatment he was given.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Do you have any idea what that could have been?

TREVOR BORMANN: You know, Elizabeth, I don't know very much more about his supposed transgression.

I don't know anything more about that now than when I first became aware of this back in April of last year.

I'd like to think that what's happening now is this rolling process, where there are stories that break out of this that reveal the true nature of what he allegedly did.

Hopefully in the weeks we might learn a bit more about that.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: And so what's the next chapter in this story, do you think?

TREVOR BORMANN: I think the big question remains, what on earth did Ben Zygier - Ben Alon, Ben Allen, Ben Burroughs - what did he do?

What was the nature of his work with the Mossad? How did he seemingly cross that organisation to end up in jail?

And what were the circumstances of his death?

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Stay tuned to Foreign Correspondent, no doubt.

TREVOR BORMANN: Please do.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Trevor Bormann, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.